Carling wants Robinson to keep the faith

9 February 2005 10:24am

Former England captain Will Carling has urged coach Andy Robinson to keep faith with the Newcastle Falcons centre pairing of Jamie Noon and Mathew Tait.

Noon and Tait had few opportunities to demonstrate their range of attacking skills during England's lacklustre performance against Wales at the Millennium Stadium, and they have come in for criticism for their respective performances.

But Carling, who formed one of the most successful centre partnerships of all-time alongside Jeremy Guscott in the 1990's, believes the youngsters deserve an extended run in the team in order to prove their worth.

"There has been some unfair criticism of them,'' Carling told BBC Five Live.

''We seem to have very little patience with a side that is being rebuilt. They need to be given a chance.''

Carling believes that the only way for the inexperienced England side to move forward, is if Robinson has the courage to stick by his original selections.

''Andy has to be his own man and hold his nerve,'' added Carling.

''He should decide what type of team he wants, what players he wants and what style of play he wants and stick with that.

''He should not try and compete with Sir Clive Woodward's era, that's almost impossible.

''Early on Clive fell into the trap of trying to compete with the early 1990s. It's not about that. It's a different era and different generations.''